Evolving and increasingly deadly threats, together with deepening humanitarian crises mean that United Nations peacekeeping missions around the world need more support for ‘blue helmets’ on the ground, Force Commanders told the Security Council on Wednesday.

The peace process in South Sudan is at a critical juncture while opposing sides allow themselves to get bogged down in arguments over ministerial quotas, the United Nations peacekeeping chief said on Tuesday, as the country prepares for a third round of regionally-backed peace talks.

Surging violence in parts of South Sudan is putting thousands of war-weary civilians at risk and endangering the fragile peace process in the world’s youngest nation, the United Nations peacekeeping mission there has warned.

All stakeholders in South Sudan must “engage genuinely and constructively in finding a political solution” to the conflict there, a senior United Nations peacekeeping official said at the end of her four-day visit.